Linux Mint 18 'Sarah' Released, Supports Generic GTK X-Apps (linuxmint.com)

Slashdot reader Type44Q writes: The Linux Mint team announced the immediate availability of their latest release, Mint 18 "Sarah," in Cinnamon and MATE flavors. These follow on the heels of their respective beta versions, which have been out for nearly a month.
"Linux Mint 18 is a long-term support release which will be supported until 2021," the team announces on MATE's "new features" page, adding they've improved their update manager, included support for the Debian syntax of "apt", and are working on the "X-Apps" project to "produce generic applications for traditional GTK desktop environments...to replace applications which no longer integrate properly outside of a particular environment."

Comments

So they're fixing GNOME 3's fuck ups?

[Anonymous Coward]

"produce generic applications for traditional GTK desktop environments...to replace applications which no longer integrate properly outside of a particular environment."

Is that just a polite, politically-correct way of saying that they're fixing up all of the shit that the GNOME 3 and systemd crowd have broken over the past several years?

Re:So they're fixing GNOME 3's fuck ups?

[Anonymous Coward]

"produce generic applications for traditional GTK desktop environments...to replace applications which no longer integrate properly outside of a particular environment."

Is that just a polite, politically-correct way of saying that they're fixing up all of the shit that the GNOME 3 and systemd crowd have broken over the past several years?

I came here to post the same thing. By "particular environment" they have to mean systemd. To depend so heavily on a particular "init system" when standards exist for a reason was a big mistake. Even if systemd were perfect the decision to be totally dependent on it is a mistake. Systemd is not perfect. The decreasing ability to avoid it is a problem. I've used Gentoo for a long time and happened to dodge this one - I just stayed with openrc. That doesn't make it less of a problem for others.

Re:So they're fixing GNOME 3's fuck ups?

[Blaskowicz]

Here is the rationale for the GTK3 X-apps and a couple finished example of them.

http://segfault.linuxmint.com/2016/02/the-first-two-x-apps-are-ready/

It's about how Gnome 3 has crapified gedit, evince etc. and uses non-standard GUI elements - Gnome-specific parts of GTK3 - in client-side decorated windows.
Another reason is to remove a few dependencies, and in particular remove some of the distro-level hackery where Mint had gedit locked at version 2.30, so you couldn't install gedit 3. More generally it's part of removing warts that have historically made Cinnamon difficult to run on other distros, or some Gnome 3 applications on Cinnamon or Mint.

Earlier blog post on it
http://blog.linuxmint.com/?p=2985

Re:So they're fixing GNOME 3's fuck ups?

[thegarbz]

Noting depends on systemd. Nothing depends on a specific init system.

Software may depend on specific APIs that expose certain kernel features like cgroups, so if you're not happy with having systemd do that then either write your own interface or pay someone to write it for you.

systemd

[Anonymous Coward]

Since it was missing from the summary, the Mint 18 release is based on Ubuntu 16.04 and now includes systemd.

Sarah Conner?

[drew_92123]

Just don't install it on an array of Conner HDDs... ;-)

Mint is almost awesome

[future assassin]

only issues I have is that for some reason once in a blue moon (every 3-4 months) some thing happens with either the system or FGLRX drivers and get a blank cursor on loading screen and x wont start. Have to totally purge remove FGLRX resintall xorg for it to work again. Install FGLRX once one and I'm good to got for an other 4 months.

Also should add this isn't Mint per say but running AMD A10 5800 the new AMD and Rageon drivers are MUCH smoother when playing Xonotic. Basically just as good or better than on my works Win7 machine with better graphics and CPU.

Re:Long-term support until 2021?

[SeaFox]

"Long-term support" only means 5 years now?!

Linux Mint's long-term support cycle is tied to that of Ubuntu's. Maybe you should be complaining upstream?

Re:Nice, but...

[AthanasiusKircher]

and just want a stable system on which I can get some work done. (I feel this way about trying to choose a distro too.) And want something I can use on both newer and older hardware

Those are precisely the reasons that I switched my primary home desktop OS from Ubuntu to Mint several years ago. (This was actually before the Unity debacle, but I could have seen something like that coming given poor choices Ubuntu had made before.)

I'm NOT trying to convert you. We all have our particular stories and needs. But Ubuntu for many years never actually satisfied the "just works" criterion I care most about -- they seemed too interested in showing off Wobbly Windows and other BS, while major functionality would often break on every upgrade. Particularly things like sound, video, codecs, etc. always seemed a pain to actually get working, and they were often unstable. (And I'm not kidding that EVERY new version broke things on my systems, and each time the breakage was different.)

I just got tired of it. I abandoned Ubuntu and went back to Debian for a while, though that had its own issues. Distro-hopped for a while, but nothing ever seemed stable and user-friendly. Then I tried Mint, and every computer I've installed it on in the past 6 years or so has "just worked." (And as for older hardware, the XFCE edition has worked great for me.)

I'm sure Ubuntu is probably more stable now, but I've seen no compelling reason to go back. Mint's interface is relatively stable and works. It's funny, but that's really all I give a crap about these days in an OS -- don't change stuff every year for no apparent reason, and make it work on standard hardware. And if possible give me a choice that runs as light as possible on system resources. I can get used to just about anything if it satisfies that criteria, but unfortunately most OSes don't.